Located in the same plaza as 3 Brothers Corner Tavern, BAM! and Royal Docks Brewing Company, Mint & Lime is a zen, calming setting that's conducive to conversation. A long and narrow room, the restaurant has a very high ceiling and a front wall of windows that bring a spacious feel. Three wall fountains behind the five-seat sushi bar lend a continuous background of running water. The music playing is that easy, reflective style I would call "contemporary Asian restaurant." Napkins and tablecloths are cloth.

I met a friend there for supper at 5:30 last Thursday and we almost had the place to ourselves, although there was a steady flow of people picking up carryout. By 7 p.m., the dining room was filling up. On Friday and Saturday evenings, Mint & Lime is routinely packed, making reservations a must.

Our server, a woman named Mandalay, was cordial, knowledgeable and immediately keyed in to the leisurely paced meal we were seeking. The eight-page menu takes awhile to study, so we started off with a glass of crisp Riesling ($7) and a Stella Artois ($5).

In a recent interview for About Magazine, Kenny Ly, the owner and chef of Mint & Lime, told me that the restaurant's name "means fresh, Everything fresh. Everything." Everything is made to order, he said, vegetables are fresh-cut daily, meat is fresh, not frozen, nothing is precooked. Previously with Basil and Ricky Ly's, Ly described his cuisine as Pan-Asian, combining Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean and Vietnamese elements.

We started off with a bowl of pho (pronounced fuh), a slow-cooked Vietnamese brothy beef soup, with tender sliced beef, dense beef meatballs and loads of rice noodles. It was served with wedges of lime, a pile of bean sprouts, sprigs of basil and dishes of sriracha and hoisin sauce for dipping meat into. Pho is $10, and my friend estimated there was more than a quart of soup in this enormous bowl. Mandalay was happy to split it into two large bowls for us. The broth, which smelled wonderful, had lots of deep flavor and was non-salty; I added sprouts, basil and sriracha, which kicked the flavor to another level. We ate and ate and didn't empty our bowls.

Next was an entree Ly had recommended — avocado curry with chicken ($13). The curry was warming and aromatic, and given an extra richness from the avocado; in addition to sliced chicken, there were green beans, red bell pepper and onions, with a chopped peanut garnish adding crunch. We opted for jasmine coconut rice ($3 extra), which contributed its own sweet flavor.

Our second entree, from the Chef's Special category, was green mango grouper ($19). There were five fillets of mild grouper, battered and deep-fried, artfully stacked and topped with ribbons of basil, chopped peppers and onions, and julienned mango, in a pool of sweet garlicky sauce. It was very good, but I wished the fish batter was lighter.

We wound up our meal with a dish of coconut ice cream ($4), made in house by Ly. It is non-dairy, gluten-free and wholly pleasurable.

The menu is fairly vast, with lots of soups, 15 appetizers, curries, noodle dishes (including pad thai) and stir-frys, plus sushi and sashimi. I look forward to returning with more friends. A couple of regular customers seated nearby recognized me and were eager to share their enthusiasm for Mint & Lime.

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